Color-shifting Wolves
You pushed aside the large ferns that stood in your way as you walked through the forest with its tall trees reaching far above your head. You stepped over a root that belonged to a tree somewhere close; you follow your somewhat of a trail aimlessly for a long while without knowing what you were headed for, you just watched your feet as they moved; they sometimes stumbled and you struggled to keep your balance. You kept your head down, still looking at your feet, you noticed something strange on the ground; you stopped abruptly. Squinting at it, your eyes widened - a large paw print had been stomped into the dirt right in front of your feet. It looks like a wolves', you thought quickly. You didn't remember any records of wolves living in this forest, but then why were there tracks? Your eyes left the ground and stared around, you wanted to know where you were; as you turned your head slightly to glance behind yourself, you realize you were still in the same forest you had been wandering in, the only thing different was that the ground was sloping downward as you walked on.
This time as you briskly took up your pace, you kept your eyes gazing around, looking for any sigh of danger or worse, wolves. Suddenly a sound you hadn't heard before met your ears, a faint growling was coming from ahead. You pressed on, wondering what you would see; you saw a enormous brush, as you reached it, you looked both ways and shock crossed your curious face. The mixed brush stretched as far as your eyes could see, until it turned and vanished. You guessed it went around in a circle blocking something from view. You resumed your gaze towards the wall of wildly-growing plants in front of you, and you drew a deep breath and gathered your courage; you finally stepped into the brush and found yourself on a small hill that went around the inside of the brush, the center of the space was lower. You were right about the brush forming a circle around the prison-like place that you had entered. Somehow, it was extremely bright, like the ground was glowing. A strangely familiar growling made your head snap towards the direction it came from, you dropped to your knees and crawled to a fern and hid behind it; the wolf that caused your movement had a combination of white and black hairs which covered her muscular body in fur. Her hackles were a navy blue; you noticed that her back was turned on you.
The female creature was lying on a flatten bed of grass and a large carcass in front of her. It seemed a good time to take a closer look, you crawled to the next row of ferns; when you sat down in them, a twig snapped under your hand. The wolf stopped ripping at the meat and steadily got up and without looking at you, she said in a growl-like voice, "Come closer, beast of unknown kind." You tentatively stood up and walked toward and then down a path of flattened grass lined with small stones; as you came, she turned her body towards you, her black eyes looking you up and down. Suddenly her lips curled back upon her fangs which were drenched with crimson blood. A growl rumbled from her chest and it seemed to shake the ground with fury; she spoke with strong anger as her hackles turned bright red, "Filthy human, leave or face certain death." You staggered with fear as marched forward, as it seemed, to your death. The werewolf-like creature bent her legs as you approached, making herself look like she was about to spring; you stopped five feet away from her, putting a good distance between yourself and the wolf. "Why have you come here?" she snarled coldly. "Answer me, human." she said with even more intensity.
You were speechless, like all the other humans that were brave and stupid enough to come here, but only the wolf knew that your life would end. The wolf launched herself at you, crashing you and herself onto the ground; you gasped for air, she growled as if she were responding to a question. Her face drew nearer to yours, she opened her mouth just enough to display her white teeth; but then, something made her look up, you turned your head towards the path that led up to the brush, another wolf seemed to be running down the trail. The wolf that was on top of you leaped up and snarling, she said, "Lunar, what are you doing here?" The other wolf that appeared to be named Lunar said to the other wolf, "I live here, can't I come without you acting like this? What were you doing anyway, Moon?" Lunar snarled and added, "You can't kill other creatures like that." Moon growled in response again, but unlike you, Lunar understood. The wolves started to walk in the circle like most animals would do when they were about to fight; you found the strength to drag yourself farther away from the snarling wolves.
You laid flat on your back and took it slow breathes, while you listened to the yelps, growls and snarls of the battle, you noticed why this was the place the two wolves lived. There were no trees in the space, it was open; no trees to be blocking the light of the full moon, which shone bright above the trees tops of the forest outside of the wall-like brush. You began to feel faint, and soon after that, you passed out.
The hoot of an owl woke you, but you didn't open your eyes. Your fingers were clamped around something furry, something alive, you could feel it breathing. It was quiet now, the crunching of the dirt floor below you, no wolves were fighting a battle anymore. You forced your tired eyes open and glanced around as they focused, you realized you were laying on the back of a wolf; your arms were winded tightly around his neck, the wolf was walking up the trail that you had walked down a few hours earlier. You abruptly gained consciousness and attempted to jump off of the creature's back, but he was too quick; he looked over his shoulder and gazed deep into your fearful eyes, he caught your attention and you, it seemed, were forced to stare at his black eyes. "I'm Lunar, the one who tried to save you. I promise I won't eat you, I'm trying to take you home." He chuckled darkly to himself. Lunar turned his head back to the trail, and he suddenly said, "Now, hold on, I'm going to make this a quicker travel." You obeyed and hugged him close, tensing your legs on the sides of his body and squeezing your eyes shut. It didn't feel like his speed had picked up; after what seemed like an hour, he said calmly, "We're here." You opened your eyes and loosened your grip on his body, the wolf had came to the head of the path and the entrance of the forest, he shook and tipped his body; you fell over onto the cold ground. "I will be leaving now. Moon would want me to say this, never come back to our home again or you and death shall meet. Good bye." He added and dashed off into the darkness of the trees. You watched until he disappeared and then started to walk up another path that led you towards home.

1 comment:
This is really good A!
It drew me in right away. It was mysterious and unfolding and I couldn't stop reading because I needed to figure out what was going on.
I'd love to read more.
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